£5.7m cost-cutting plans pose no community risk, says Staffordshire fire service boss
A fire chief has pledged the safety of residents will not be impacted by £5.7million cost-cutting plans, which will result in a reduction of engines and crews.
Staffordshire Fire and Rescue Authority Chief Fire Officer, Peter Dartford, speaking yesterday as a consultation continues into the proposal, also said no station will close, although he said emergency response crews could be pulled from 18 stations in the county.
At Staffordshire County Council's corporate review committee, he was quizzed over the planned cuts. They would see the number of fire stations with a response capability reduced from the current 33 fire stations with 42 frontline fire appliances to 15 stations with 15 frontline fire appliances. He said: "We will not compromise the safety of our communities or of our firefighters."
He added: "In 2009 when we started this, we made it very clear that red lines would not be crossed. If we believed we were close to these lines we would stop.
"If we got to the point where we couldn't save any more money safely we would stop, but the reality is there are opportunities to do things differently."
Committee chairman Philip Jones questioned the finances of the authority and asked: "Is it not the case that your financial problems are self inflicted?", which Mr Dartford fiercely denied.
Mr Dartford added: "In the past five years we have saved in excess of £6 million and in the same time we have delivered the best performance in our history."
However, he warned: "The austerity challenge continues. and we have to find ways to save money. It is important to say at this time that no decisions have been made, this is the public consultations.
"Some of the options are quite radical and the public are concerned about some of the options but we wanted to be clear of all the options."
Consultations on the proposal, under the community safety options report, closes on May 22.
Councillor John Taylor said: "I'm concerned about how the consultation has been organised.
"The reality is more people should have been consulted over a longer period of time."
Mr Dartford went on to assure the committee that stations would not shut.
He said: "We are not closing stations, we are pulling emergency responses from 18 stations but what will remain is community hubs. I absolutely reject the notion that these are anything other than excellent community resources."
Mr Dartford added: "We are looking to produce a broader range of response options, for years we have only had one type of tool in our box, a fire engine. We want to have the right resource and the right response."
